We All Fall Down
by PuzzlePrince
Summary: "I'm not a thing," he protested, growing angry. "I'm a thinking, feeling, humanoid being about to undergo a procedure most wouldn't perform on a damned monkey! And do you know why?" His lips pulled back in a snarl. "Because it's barbaric to subject a living creature to pointless pain! I'm sure most wouldn't even do this to a dog!"
1. Chapter 1

**Warnings:** Fairly mild gore. Second chapter is when it'll enter 'oh god no' territory.

* * *

Rarely did his plans go so awry that they were unsalvageable. Vlad could only think of two occasions that fit the criteria of his current disastrous circumstances, and he had come out unscathed from both despite his losses.

Worst of all, it was what little affection he nurtured for Daniel that had been his downfall. Quite literally his downfall; they'd been battling in mid-air, exchanging the occasional punch and kick at his own leisure. He'd been humoring the boy solely to see how much he had improved since their last battle, and had been quite impressed with what developments Daniel had displayed. He'd even said so, much to the boys dismay.

The telltale hiss of a weapon closing in had caught his enhanced hearing. The sight of the condensed energy barreling towards them in his peripheral vision had been enough to tell him it had the potential to be fatal, but Daniel had been oblivious, focused entirely on his archenemy. He'd had an opening to escape, and had instead moved to fling Daniel out of the way, only managing to circle a hand around the boys wrist before he was being flung violently forward, bright pink ectoplasm spewing forth from a wound that extended from his back to his chest. A wide, gory hole.

Daniel's ectoplasm-speckled face took a moment to register shock. His own was strangely pallid, but relaxed. His grip fell lax and he plummeted hard into the streets below, bouncing and rolling upon impact.

"We've got him!" Exclaimed a voice. Dazed as he was, it took him a moment to identify it as Maddie's. "Grab the Fenton Ghost Weasel, honey!"

"I'm on it!" And that could only be Jack.

Vlad emitted a low groan, rolling onto his elbows as he attempted to rise. His body was impeccably sore. Never before had he been so severely injured. He could hear Jack and Maddie's approaching footsteps and willed himself to move, to escape, but his wound was deep and debilitating and he was barely grasping onto consciousness as it was. He wasn't above requesting help, so he looked to the skies to find Daniel.

He didn't manage to catch sight of him before there was a chilly sensation reverberating through his spectral body, a loud whirr, and darkness - not the sort that came with unconsciousness, but the pitch black that came with being confined to an empty, windowless room (which wasn't an experience Vlad was unfamiliar with, sadly). He found himself withering in pain in what little space the blasted contraption — the Fenton Ghost Weasel? — provided. His wound was still steadily expelling his life-force, tender and sore and currently being assaulted by his own knee thanks to the awkward position the cubic space forced him into. He tried to make himself a little more comfortable by manoeuvring himself into a curl, but it only served to further aggravate his injury. He was pretty sure there was nothing he could do without aggravating his injury, actually.

Beyond the walls of his cage, he could hear nothing. Not a hint of sound. He was in a dark, silent place, so disconnected from the world he might as well have been in a different dimension entirely. His body was becoming progressively weaker, and he knew exactly what would happen if he turned human in this device. With fear and panic finally overwhelming his initial bewilderment, he focused what little energy he had left on remaining ghost. It didn't matter if it hindered his healing so long as he remained alive enough to heal in the future.

The rocking of the Fenton Ghost Weasel came to a sudden stop. Vlad feared he had been set on a shelf somewhere in the recesses of the Fenton lab to be confined until Daniel either took pity on him or realized his well-being was in jeopardy, but what happened was far worse: he was released. The earlier chill enveloped him from head to toe and suddenly he was sprawled out on the floor of the Fenton laboratory, a bleeding, shivering mess at the feet of his old college friends. Were he capable of sweating, he was sure he would have been excreting buckets with how much effort it was taking not to give into the urge to whimper in distress.

The hands of his former friends, now captors were upon him before he could even conceive of the idea of escape. A hand fisted in his suit, a needle slid into his neck. He feared for a moment that he had been given an aesthetic to keep him pliant, but he didn't descend into unconsciousness. His limbs instead began to feel heavy, as if they were full of lead. What little space he had managed to put between himself and the dark blue tiles of the laboratory was suddenly filled by his torso. He tried to pull his arms beneath himself to move away from the gripping hands, but found himself unable to conjure up the energy to do so; whatever he had been injected with must have had sedative properties. And specifically spectral-binding, as he couldn't seem to access his abilities either. He sought the familiar feeling of ectoplasmic energy rushing to his fingertips and found only an absence.

Above him, Jack was excitedly bouncing on his heels. "It works, Mads! He's down and out!"

"Of course he is, sweetie; it was your design," Maddie said with an indulgent smile. "Let's get him onto the operating table."

Onto the operating table…? Realization dawned on Vlad, violently twisting his insides - which were soon to be sorted into separate jars if he didn't manage some means of escape.

"A'ight, Mads." Jack heaved him into his arms with ease, carrying him bridal style. It would have been embarrassing were he not so alarmed by their intentions.

"You're moving a little fast, don't you think?" he began, voice low and scratchy, and would have been distinctly human if not for the slightest echoing quality brought on by exhaustion. "You haven't even questioned me yet."

"Oh, we'll question you," Maddie said with a pleased nod. She approached the operating table, Jack following her lead. "And you're going to be very forthcoming if you want to keep any of your molecules intact."

"That's right, ghost! We have you exactly where we want you!" Jack chimed in. It was with his usual lack of grace that he disposed Vlad on a long, thin gurney situated in the middle of the room. He hit it with a resounding thump and groaned aloud at the pain it sent straight to his tender back and side. There was pink on Jack's suit where he had been cradling Vlad. Thick, sticky, and seeming to glow. For the most part his wound had healed, but the buckets of lost ectoplasm remained clinging to his body and suit, still slick and wet, as fresh as it had been when spilt. Unlike human blood, ectoplasm didn't congeal.

Maddie stepped in to help bind his ankles while Jack cuffed his wrists. Due to the sedative, he wasn't able to resist no matter how much he might have wanted to. "I'll be happy to answer any questions you have, my dear. There'll be no need for an interrogation." He was weak and scared and in pain, and yet he managed a charming, toothy smile, so wide that his molars were visible. "I'm at your disposal."

"How kind of you to offer what we would have been able to acquire anyway," Maddie said dryly. Her grip on his left ankle was uncomfortably tight. "We I don't take charity from ghosts."

"I'm saying I'll be cooperative, provided my well-being is ensured," Vlad tried.

"But you're a ghost! You don't hurt like we do," Jack pointed out. He finished securing Vlad's wrists to the gurney and stepped away to retrieve a portable table from the wall.

"And you would know that, how, exactly? I'm the first of my kind you've ever managed to capture." Maddie looked particularly unamused at his words.

"We've had encounters," she refuted.

At that, Vlad snorted; most of their 'encounters' had been arranged by yours truly. They had a ghost portal that expelled ghosts daily, and yet it was primarily Daniel who fought them and Daniel who learned anything about them. That was easily explained by the presence of Jack, however; the man was known to inadvertently release dozens of ghosts into the human world while demonstrating improvements made to the ghost portal, something Vlad had been privy to due to how quickly the information had circulated. He hampered his wife with his foolishness.

None of the ghosts had ever tried to escape through his own portal. It would have been incredibly perilous to do.

Maddie had moved to a control panel and Vlad could hear her clicking away at buttons. The room was encased in an eerie green glow that became progressively stronger with each 'click'. A shield, but it wasn't dome shaped. It covered the walls and floor and ceiling like paint, thick and shimmering. Further examination revealed a metal slab - much like the one closing off the ghost portal - barricading the entrance to the laboratory. It didn't look like he'd be able to get far even if he did manage to escape his bindings.

Jack's approach was accompanied by the metallic jingle of medical equipment on a table. Vlad turned to him, pupiless eyes wide. "Jack," he said with what he hoped was some degree of affection. "You can't have not noticed how I've been afflicted by my injury."

Jack came to a stop beside him and his eyebrows pulled together. "How do you know my name?"

"Picked it up at the reunion," Vlad offered quickly. The volume of his voice was increased by the sight of scalpels and knives sitting on the approaching table. "You wouldn't really dissect an intelligent being, would you? And one capable of feeling pain, no less. It would just be inhumane—"

"Oh please," he heard Maddie interrupt from the control panel. "We know that was all an act. You're a ghost, ectoplasmic energy - you can't feel anything."

Jack was lifting scissors off the table. "But you have no evidence of this! You only have your assumptions!" Vlad protested, and while he didn't need to breathe, he could feel his breaths accelerating. Maddie seemed to notice his chest heaving as she paused in the middle of fiddling with a monitor.

"Are you seeing this, Jack?" Instead of acknowledging it as a response to fear, she sounded delighted. "This is an unseen phenomenon in any other ghost we've encountered!

"What is?" Jack asked, frowning down at Vlad.

Maddie bounded over to his side, prodding Vlad hard between the collarbones. "His chest, look at it."

"Oooh!"

Vlad almost couldn't believe how dismissive they were being to his distress. "Cease ogling me!" he demanded in a screech. "I'm an intelligent, living being! I don't deserve this!"

"That's debatable," Maddie scowled, clearly referring to their previous encounters.

The tip of the scissors was icy cold against his skin as it cut through his outfit, from neck to navel. Jack's beefy fingers peeled it apart to unveil pectorals stuttering in their ascent while Vlad was struggling to contain his involuntary human responses to fear. He held onto the breath, holding air in lungs that didn't need it, and then slowly breathed out.

"Madeline, please, please don't do this," he began imploringly, hoping to appeal to Maddie's humane side. "Not even a being with as dubious a past as myself deserves to be cut open while conscious."

Maddie's expression tensed, but Jack gave her shoulder an encouraging squeeze. "It's just a ghost, baby. Don't let it get to you."

"You're right, Jack," she sighed, smiling and tilting her head up to press her lips to Jack's jaw.

Their display of affection was interrupted by a distant thudding coming from the walls (and Vlad, despite the circumstances, was somewhat grateful for this). All three of them turned their heads towards the source of the sound, before Jack shrugged and resumed the task of peeling the suit away from Vlad's navel. "Must be the pipes," he said.

Whatever it was, Vlad didn't particularly care. He was distracted by the serum beginning to wane. A little stronger now, he tried his bindings, weakly pulling and twisting to no avail; he hadn't expected to be able to budge them with how little strength he had, but it was still frustrating to fail.

A damp cloth was applied to his wound. Jack began gathering the ectoplasm in clumps, cleaning the skin as best he could, and he wasn't exactly gentle about it. Vlad attempted to twist away from those mammoth fingers, sending a spluttering hiss at Jack when he failed to move the necessary distance. He tried again to reach for his ability to turn intangible and felt only an absence. The mere attempt to access his powers dizzied him to the point of having to close his eyes against the now rapidly spinning room.

When he opened them, Maddie was sticking needles surrounded by sticky pads to his chest. The slight pain provoked a growl, and for the first time in his life he attempted to evade Maddie's touch. "Don't touch me, woman!" He didn't quite manage to thrash, limbs sporadically twitching. Maddie ignored him and set an elbow down on his chest to still him while she applied a needle to his side. None would be in the way of where the main incision was to be.

"Need a hand there?" Jack asked, but he didn't receive an answer as they were once again interrupted by thumping emanating from the wall. Maddie gave a small, irate noise and stuck the next needle in particularly hard, causing Vlad to yelp in dismay.

"When we're done here, could you call the plumber?"

"Of course."

He was somewhat shocked by how callousness. In college they had never exhibited this sort of behavior. He'd never known them capable of being so cold towards another living - in a manner of speaking - being, even if said being _was_ a ghost. It served to reinforce his decades long decision to never let them know he was half ghost, least Maddie reject him for it. It had been Maddie who had unknowingly dictated his decisions after the accident, and it was Maddie who dictated his decisions now; he wouldn't resort to turning back into Vlad Master's until he was absolutely certain, without a doubt, that he wouldn't be able to talk his way out of a vivisection.

The thumping continued, moving from each wall of the room, and the dismissal of it was mutual. "You're aware you're not certified to perform a surgical procedure on a sentient being? Who - I repeat - is very capable of feeling pain." It was a long shot, but he had to keep them talking if he wanted to get out of this with all his organs intact.

Another needle was stuck in his side, between his ninth and tenth rib. "Now you're just getting desperate," Maddie sneered. It was an ugly look, and not one Vlad hadn't been delivered before. He glanced down to the toes of his shoes to see what Jack was up to. Positioning some machines closer to the gurney, thankfully nowhere near the table of scalpels and other painful-looking surgical equipment. He picked up four thin purple wires and attached each one to the needles of the sticky pads by a clip.

"You don't have any right to do this to me. I'm clearly thinking, and that should be reason enough not to… what is it you two say?"

"Tear you apart molecule by molecule?" Jack provided.

"Y-yes, that." His body seemed to have forgotten the pain in his side in favor of slamming him with fear. "I don't recommend doing that to someone who can feel every sensation."

"Some_thing_," Maddie corrected. Clearly she wasn't being persuaded by his argument.

"I'm not a _thing_," he protested, growing angry. "I'm a thinking, feeling, humanoid being about to undergo a procedure most wouldn't perform on a damned monkey! And do you know why?" His lips pulled back in a snarl. "Because it's barbaric to subject a living creature to pointless pain! I'm sure most wouldn't even do this to a dog!"

There was, to his delight, another tense pause. And then it came crashing down, "I would take that into consideration were you not clearly trying to deceive us," Maddie began. "You don't have the nerve endings necessary to feel, you can barely think - I know ghosts are narrowed to a singular purpose, and yours seems to be harassing our family! Twice you've assaulted us, twice you've tried to kill my husband!" She leaned down, unpleasantly close. "Complain all you want, ectoplamic scum! You aren't going to get out of this."

Vlad was beginning to believe her. "I don't think that quite justifies this, but if it helps, I'm terribly sorry for my past escapades."

"No you aren't," was Maddie's rather predictable reply. Well, she wasn't wrong.

A lamp was pulled into view. He squinted against it, twisting his head to the side to avoid retinal burn. With his cheek pressed to the cool metal of the gurney, he could see Jack examining the screens of the equipment with pursed lips and drawn eyebrows. It was more concentration he'd seen on the man in all the years he'd known him.

He seemed to notice Vlad's staring and turned to him, a sausage-like finger tapping an equally as proportionally impossible chin. "You're becoming more of an anomaly by the second." He gestured Maddie over. "Come and look at these results, Maddie. His temperature, weight, ectoplasmic construction — it's nothing we've encountered before in our studies!"

Vlad was given the distinct impression this only made Jack want to pick him apart even more. He suspected Maddie would feel much the same way. "That would be because I don't function as any other ghost you've encountered." On the other hand, this could be an opportunity to coerce them into letting him go. He had faith in his manipulative prowess. "I can fall in love, too. It's a riveting experience, trust me." His eyebrows danced up, and that was probably why he had a scalpel embedded deep into his side wound a moment later. Immediately he cried out, withering and arching off the table, trying to force the scalpel to dislodge. But with Jack's help, Maddie cut away a significant portion of muscle and slid it into a vial.

"Oh, God, oh, hmmmfff." He blinked his eyes rapidly and bit his lip. "S-surely t-that wasn't necessary."

She didn't appear to be listening to him, moving around the gurney with the vial in hand to read the results on the monitor. Behind her goggles, her eyes were narrowed in concentration. It took several long minutes for her to finally offer her assessment, "These are incredible readings. I never would have imagined a ghost capable of having this unique an ectoplasmic structure."

Jack bent down next to her, difficult though that was for him with his broad shoulders. "He's really weird, like that ghost kid." He eyed Vlad briefly, contemplative. "He deviates from the norm too."

Vlad's voice was tremulous when he replied, "A lot about me deviates from what is considered 'normal' for ghosts." He looked down at his wound, now leaking fresh ectoplasm. The hot, stabbing pain had receded, replaced by a radiating throbbing that was only minutely less agonizing.

"I'm sure we'll confirm that when we get a better look at your internal structure," Maddie said with obvious distain.

"There's equipment that can provide you with images without the unnecessary gore." Again, he was ignored. "Talk to me, Madeline! I'm trying to be cooperative! I'm— I—" He was scared. He'd maintained his composure until now, but he was so scared. As a man who had never allowed anyone to get the upper hand against him, he felt incredibly vulnerable and exposed. "I don't want to die!" The surprise on his own face was almost as prominent as it was on Maddie's and Jack's. That…hadn't been a premeditated outburst. Perhaps the serum flooding his veins was making him more susceptible to his stress?

"It thinks it can die," Jack murmured in an almost conspiratorial manner.

"Just ignore it, Jack," Maddie replied gently. "It's putting on a show." She parted from her husband to circle back around to Vlad's left side. "You have the camera on him, right?"

"Er—" Jack pulled the cap off a camera suspended above the table. "Now I do. Sorry, honey."

Vlad growled in frustration at their inane exchange. "I'm not putting on a shooooh. Oh, gosh." The love of his life was wielding the scalpel. The very sharp, ectoplasm-stained scalpel. Without another word, she lowered it to his chest and made a deep incision just below his collarbones, dragging the blade down to his navel, slicing through skin and muscle as if it were butter. It nicked organs on its way down.

For a moment, Vlad was stunned into silence.

And then he screamed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Warnings:** Disturbing descriptions of gore.

* * *

He screamed.

It was a horrible, primeval sound, carrying with it every trace of fear of a mortal man. But with no need for air, it went on without interruption.

"Oh, stop it," Maddie scowled, but her tone was one of someone shaken. The sound only ceased when the scalpel had been drawn away, but he was panting and moaning, blinking rapidly in an attempt to gather some degree of control over himself.

"Oh, god, oh god, it hurts, please—" Skin was peeled back, exposing Vlad's thoracic cavity, and he shrieked again, thumping his head back against the table over and over. He didn't care how pathetic his display was. He didn't even care that the whole neighborhood could probably hear his howling cries of pain. He just wanted it to stop - he would have done _anything_ to make it stop.

"Amazing! It's anatomy mimics humans! Do you think it unconsciously constructed itself that way?"

"Probably. Could you hand me the shears?"

"Here you go."

There was a snap of bone. His ribs, he vaguely realized before the fresh wave of pain brought forth a choked cry. He couldn't repress the tears that came to rim his eyes, nor could he repress the violent shivering that ran from his crown to his toes. The pain was unbearable. Burning, blistering agony, each affliction merging and becoming indistinguishable from the last. He barely even realized there were fingers deep in his chest, prodding around his insides with no regard for their well-being until a section of his ribs was pulled free and examined before his eyes.

He screamed so loud and hard at the sight that he might have damaged his voice box had he been in human form. Pleading words broke though the ragged sound; broken syllables, unintelligible, but fighting for coherency. He blubbered like a frightened child, tears finally spilling, sliding down his cheeks and to his neck, meeting the pink that had splashed up to his collarbone.

He was dying. Slowly, painfully, at the hands of his former friends. His entire world had been compressed to this moment, the singular feeling of pain, and he found himself wishing desperately for death to end his suffering.

Words finally took coherent form, "P-please, it's too much! Stop!" But it was a stuttering cry that went ignored.

"Look, Maddie; the ribs reattached themselves!"

There was momentary relief before muscle was forcefully split, followed by Jack's excited squeal. Vlad arched off the table and shook his head from side to side, sobbing uncontrollably, breath catching in the back of his throat. He felt the need to draw in air despite his lack of respiratory system and he panicked when he couldn't, making low gargling sounds, like someone smothered.

"Jack, is he…? It looks like he's trying to breathe."

"But he can't breathe, he's a ghost."

"I didn't think ghosts could cry either, but…"

The fingers were back inside in chest, pressing at his lungs. "They're expanding." The fingers moved, tearing through soft tissue, leaving lacerations in their wake. His consciousness was wavering, blurring around the edges, perilously close to unveiling his secret and taking with it his life. All he had to do was release the tenuous grip he had on it.

So he did.

"What's that light—"

Organs pulsated, raw and exposed and warm with life. Blood rivulet down his chest in red streams. Before he could take in the horror-struck expressions of his captors, his eyelids fell shut as consciousness rapidly ebbed away from him. He could hear the thump, thump, thump of the pipes, and then a scream.

And it wasn't him who screamed this time.

* * *

He stirred, eyelids twitching.

"Vlad?"

Slow blinking. A cream ceiling came into view, lit up by a growing yellow bulb. That there was someone beside him, calling his name, took his hazy mind several minutes to register, and then he turned his head towards it, taking in the sight of Daniel leaning over the side of his bed. No — not his bed at all. It was too small, too white. Daniel's bed. And he was in Daniel's bed because…

It was fortunate he was turned towards Daniel because he promptly rolled the rest of the way over and vomited. It was a thick stream of blood, stomach acid, and gunk, before he collapsed back onto the bed and curled in his limbs, moaning feebly, uncaring of Daniel being privy to his moment of weakness.

The boy disregarded the vomit on his floor and dabbed his mouth with a damp cloth that smelt faintly of blood. It must have been used to clean his wounds - which hadn't been fatal, evidently. He could only hope they hadn't caused any permanent damage, either.

"Geeze, you look terrible. I mean, obviously you would look terrible, after…" There was shaky inhale. "I'm really sorry, Vlad. I - I tried to get in, I really did. I spent ages banging at the walls and trying to get in through the door, but the shield didn't allow anything with an ectoplasmic signature to pass and I…"

Hopefully he wasn't going to start crying as children were prone to. He wouldn't know what to do if Daniel started crying.

"I went to find Jazz to help and everything, but when I got back you were already being carried up the stairs a-and-"

He desperately wanted to tell Daniel to shut up, that everything was fine. But it wasn't, and they both knew it. Nothing was going to be fine now. Jack knew his secret, and more importantly, Maddie knew. And she must loathe him for what he was, for what he had done. He'd put up a strong, confident front just to be reduced to a begging weeping mess that had relinquished its control within the hour. He felt sick with anger and fear, and to some degree, self-loathing; how could he have let this happen to himself? He was Vlad masters, his might was impenetrable, unstoppable - or it was supposed to be, anyway. He'd let himself be irrevocably violated and lose the love of his life in the process. He had nothing, now. No ambitions, no hope for the life he rightfully deserved.

He was so frustrated he wanted to weep.

"Vlad? Say something. Please?"

If he spoke he knew his voice would crack. His throat bobbed, additional vomit threatening to spill from his lips. His stomach was aching enough as it was, he didn't need to irritate it further by vomiting up what little he had left in it, so he swallowed hard, throat bobbing. Danny was, thankfully, quiet. Once his lips were clean of vomit, he rolled away from Daniel and attempted to rise. He didn't get far; moving only exacerbated his condition. It was with a whimper that he fell back to the mattress and clutched his aching abdominals.

Daniel was quick to set his small hands on his shoulders and pull him back to the middle of the bed. As if whimpering hadn't been humiliating enough, now he was being manhandled back to safety by a teenager. He tried to push Danny away in protest, but what little pressure he managed was feeble at best. Downright 'wet kitten' pathetic at worst. Daniel gently lifted his upper body and shoved a pillow beneath his head and shoulders to make him more comfortable. His fingers were wet, nails stained pink. Clearly it had been Daniel himself to clean his wounds. But why would such a young boy subject himself to such gore, and why would his parents allow him to? Were they, perhaps, more affected by their actions than he was assuming? Maddie had always been the sensitive sort, and Jack forever forgiving of any sort of transgression, provided it was from a friend. It was possible that they were able to overlook his spectral identity during these extenuating circumstances, but later…

Daniel, too, would want him gone soon, he was sure.

"You're not going to want to move for a while," Daniel explained while dragging the quilt up to Vlad's middle. "Mom gave you something to numb the pain. You'll just fall over if you try."

So that was why he wasn't currently withering in agony.

He grasped the edge of the quilt and pulled it up until it obscured the thick bandages circling his chest and middle. They were dabbled with dried blood, but he otherwise seemed to have stopped bleeding at some point during his slumber. He didn't close his eyes to attempt to sleep, though he was in the position and mood to do so. He didn't think he would be able to sleep if he tried. He was hungry, thirsty, aching, and afraid of how he would feel when he woke up if he allowed himself to rest any longer.

Daniel continued to gaze at him with an expression of guilt, dotted with contemplation. His hands lingered on the quilt. Vlad made no attempt to remove them. He didn't acknowledge them, however, staring vacantly away from Daniel and at the pale blue of the surrounding walls. For someone so young, with relatively wealthy parents, it was a surprisingly spartan room. Very clean. Only a couple of posters on the walls, as far as he could tell, and few embellishments otherwise.

His attention was brought back to Daniel by the sound of the boy sighing softly. The pressure on the quilt increased, as if Danny was going to tug it down from his shoulders, and then abruptly decreased as Daniel stood. "Do you feel up to eating?" Apparently Daniel hadn't yet clued into the fact Vlad had no desire to speak. He remained silent.

"…Come on, Vlad. You'll have to talk eventually."

He exhaled exasperatedly. "Daniel," he finally said, conceding.

Daniel leaned in attentively. "Yeah?"

"Shut up and get out."

Looking relieved, Daniel did as Vlad requested, perhaps in gratitude for what little he had spoken.

* * *

He did end up falling asleep, and by the time he woke, the sullied floor had been cleaned, and a fresh bowl of soup sat on the bedside table. Made by none other than Maddie, Vlad was sure. And perhaps that was the only reason he sat up to begin spooning the creamy chicken soup into his mouth, filling his stomach until it ceased aching from hunger. When he looked to the window he noticed it was beginning to darken outside. It must have been late. Six to seven o'clock, perhaps. At some point Daniel would come upstairs to go to sleep… wouldn't he? Or would Vlad be occupying this bed until Jack and Maddie felt up to interrogating him? It was entirely possible for him to turn intangible, slip through the wall, and escape, but he wasn't sure how far he would get while in his current condition, and journeying to Wisconsin in human form would be perilous while so vulnerable. For the sake of his health, he would have to remain in Amity Park for the time being. Eventually he would move to a hotel room, when it was advisable to do so.

The intensity of the painkillers had receded enough that Vlad could feel his wounds throbbing sharply beneath the gauze. They prevented him moving the distance necessary to set the empty bowl on the bedside table, so he left it balancing on the headboard instead. Maddie would disapprove, he was sure, but it wasn't likely she would be visiting anytime soon. Realizing she had dissected a human being couldn't have been anything short of a traumatic experience for her.

As he set a hand on his chest to check the state of the bandage, to see if they needed to be changed or not, it occurred to him that he'd recently had shears in his abdomen. His breath picked up, his heart beat accelerated. He closed his eyes, willing himself to calm down, because it was over now. He was okay. He was okay. He bit his lip and curled his fingers tight into the bandages, taking deep breaths, one after the other. The memories that flittered through his head weren't exactly vivid, terrified and unfocused as he had been at the time of the event, but the breathlessness, the piercing pain, the violation, the panic— those he could feel as if he were still spayed out on that silver table.

He set his head against his knees and pressed his eye sockets into the bone until the black was breached by flashes of white. His arms came to circle his legs. His fingers dug deep into his pant legs at the level of his thighs, scratching through the thin material and to the skin beneath, leaving small, burning welts. He was in enough pain as it was, he didn't need additional grievances, but he couldn't seem to will himself to cease scratching.

Having always been in control of his faculties, sans the accident that turned him half-ghost, this was an almost entirely foreign experience for him. He could draw on that faraway panic that had overcome him two decades ago, but that had given way to excitement fairly quickly. There was no upside to what had happened to him this time.

He bit his lip, shoulders quaking in distress. It was late, he was sore, but he desperately wanted to go home to the privacy and security of his master bedroom, where he could drop the curtains and take a few sleeping pills and sleep away this feeling of overwhelming panic. He didn't want to be in the house where he had been ripped open for scientific conquest. He briefly contemplating moving, but found himself unable to do more than press up against the headboard while his heart was beating so hard and fast. It was almost painful. It was as if he were having a heart attack, and that only made him panic even more.

The door creaked and soft steps approached the bed. He didn't raise his head to see who had entered. Merely curled up tighter, trying to steady his breathing while overly conscious of how pathetic he must look. A hand gently tried to peel an arm away from his legs, but he released a low whine and jerked it back to its original position.

"Vlad, are you okay?" asked the concerned voice of his host. Which, at the moment, was none other than Daniel Fenton.

Vlad hunched his back, pressing himself in even further. "I'm f-fine, Daniel. Leave me be," he manage to choke out. He sounded and looked anything but fine, so he wasn't surprised when he felt the mattress dip with Daniel's slighter weight.

"Yeah, you totally look 'fine'," he heard Daniel respond wryly. His small hands settled on his arms, trying to pry them away from his legs. "C'mon, those bandages need to be changed. Otherwise you'll get an infection."

"You're a brat," Vlad vaguely scowled, but he let one arm be pulled back so he could frown at Danny from between his legs.

"And you're a crazy old fruitloop," Daniel retorted as he curved at the waist to smile through the small gap he had created. Despite himself, Vlad could feel the panic gradually ebbing away. He exhaled slowly and lifted a hand to run his fingers through his matted hair. It would need some serious brushing once he'd had a shower — if he was able to have a shower at some point today. He would like one so he could wash away the remnants of yesterdays traumatic event.

"Are you okay?" Daniel repeated, unusually gentle in how he spoke.

Vlad managed a wary smile. "Improving." He slid the hand in his hair down to his chest, over his beating heart. It had almost returned to its regular pace. "Albeit slowly." The bandages felt uneven under his fingers. He must have loosened them with his earlier grabbing.

"Uh, good," Daniel awkwardly replied. He glanced to the bedside table and smiled, "You had the soup."

"It was… Maddie's, I imagine?" He tried not to sound as upset as he felt.

"Yeah. She made a big batch of it." Danny seemed to identify his upset at that moment and diverted his eyes. "She — she feels bad about what happened. She's not really sure what it all means, but… mom and dad…" He stuttered over the word. "They never… I mean…"

Vlad saved him from further making a spectacle of himself by saying, "You said something about changing my bandages?"

Danny was visibly relieved for the interruption. "To prevent infection and all." He gestured towards the bedside table drawer. "Do you want me to fix them or can you do it yourself?"

It didn't take him more than a moment to decide; he was weak, still reeling from a panic attack. If he attempted to wrap his own chest it was likely he would induce another one. "Your help would be much appreciated, dear boy."

Daniel crawled onto the mattress, over his legs, and retrieved some fresh gauze from the bedside table drawer. He set it down beside Vlad and slid himself off the bed.

"Daniel?" Vlad glanced down at his chest, and then back up at Daniel.

"Oh, don't worry," Danny raised both hands to prevent interruption. "I'll do that for you too. I'm going to get some stuff ready in the bathroom first. I've done this tons of times for my own injuries, so I know what I'm doing."

"Your own injuries…" A flinch crossed Vlad's features. How many of the boys aches and pains had he contributed to over the past year? It had never crossed his mind that Daniel suffered physical consequences for his heroics. Strange that a live dissection could bring out a degree of empathy he never knew he'd possessed.

"Comes with the whole 'ghost fighting' thing," Daniel needlessly explained. He approached his bedroom door. "I heal pretty quickly though. You must too, seeing as you're uh… alive…" There was an awkward pause, and then he stepped into the hallway.

Vlad watched his retreating back with some amusement. Once there was nothing left to watch but the blue of the hallway walls, he dropped his eyes back to his bandages and began very gently picking at them, hoping to dislodge whatever it was keeping them wound around his torso. There was probably a pin or something of that sort at the back, but he wouldn't be able to reach his with his injuries being as extensive as they were. Not without suffering a great deal of pain, anyway. It wasn't long before he abandoned the task and settled back to wait instead. Within fifteen minutes, Daniel had returned with a bowl of water, several hand towels, antiseptic, a bottle of water, and a small pill bottle. It was amazing that he managed to fit everything in those stick-thin arms. He gently lowered the bowl of water to the bedside table before doing anything else.

"Mom told me to give you these," he explained as he passed both the pill and water bottle to Vlad. After a brief glance at the ingredients of the pills (he didn't want to take something designed by Jack, after all), Vlad popped the lid and swallowed the recommended amount. They would make him drowsy, the bottle had said, but he hardly minded that in his current condition. Sleep would do him some good.

Was Maddie thinking of him? That was a nice thought. Guilt would be enough to make her care for at least a little while. He would try to enjoy that before he was made to resume the role of a target.

"Thank you, Daniel," he said as he leaned back into the headboard. "You can begin now," he added, because he knew Danny would be waiting for permission.

At his word, the boy crawled up to his side and gently reached behind his shoulder blades to undo and unravel the bandages. Vlad closed his eyes so he wouldn't have to see the damage beneath. The small hiss of sympathy Danny gave was indication enough that it looked painful. His eyes remained closed as Danny tugged the sullied bandages free and disposed of them, mumbling an apology as he did. "Hope that didn't hurt," he added in hushed tones, like he wasn't sure if it was appropriate to talk. Vlad's lips curved into a slight smile.

"Not at all," he reassured him. "Considering our usual relationship, you're being surprisingly gentle."

"My parents kicked your ass enough that I don't feel like I should," Danny offered jokingly. The dip in the bed receded as Danny returned to the bedside table. There was the sound of him soaking a cloth, wringing it out, and then he resumed kneeling at Vlad's side. The drips that reached his chest suggested he hadn't wrung it out quite enough, but Vlad wasn't going to complain. He spread his arms to accommodate the cloth that was tentatively pressed to the middle of his collarbone.

Eyes still closed, he murmured, "I imagine Maddie and Jack will be trying to speak to me sooner or later." He paused to see if Danny would respond, but he remained silent. "I'd… rather they didn't, honestly. Not for a while, at least."

"I know you think they hate you and everything, especially since they know you're the Wisconsin ghost now, but they don't," Danny replied. "They're just guilty that they nearly killed their best friend, no matter how much of an ass that best friend might see."

Vlad chuckled. "Were those their exact words?"

"Not exact, but… accurate."

The cloth reached a tender part of his injury and Vlad hissed, squirming. "They'll withdraw that soon, you know." He barely managed to expel the words while trying so hard to keep himself still. "They're aware of everything I've done and—"

"Stop squirming," Danny interrupted, scowling. He removed the cloth and threw it back into the bowl. "Honestly, Vlad, you can't know my parents that well if you think they'd feel anything but crap about doing this to someone they care about. I mean, yeah, dad's a bit oblivious sometimes — and don't you say a word, okay? Okay. And mom isn't hugely fond of you, but they're not psychopaths who'll completely disregard your suffering because of the things you've done. Give them some credit."

That did make him feel better, even if Danny was strongly implying he didn't understand Maddie. Sure he understood Maddie. He'd been obsessed with the woman for two decades! He knew more about Maddie than he did most paranormal subjects. But these weren't things he would admit to someone with a bottle of antiseptic on hand. He knew Daniel wouldn't be above splashing it on him if he pissed him off.

"Alright," he sighed. "I lack the energy to argue, so I'll take your word for it."

"Figures you'd want to argue." Danny snorted and removed the cloth from the bowl, squeezing it before he re-applied it to Vlad's chest. It wasn't as damp this time. "It's not like my dad isn't head over heels in love with you, because seriously, he is, and he'll forgive your crap no matter how intensely crappy it is if you stop being a diabolical villain for a little while."

"Because Jack's forgiveness is at the forefront of my mind," Vlad wryly replied.

"And my mom," Danny continued, rolling his eyes. "Well, it's probably going to be a pity thing, but restrain those weird urges you get to be a creep and you should be able to make some progress there too."

It was strange to hear Daniel exhibiting such maturity. He'd never known the boy to be capable. "You really think our relationship could 'progress' despite this setback…?"

"Not like that!" Danny exclaimed. "She won't hunt you if you don't give her a reason to hunt you is what I'm saying."

Vlad had selective hearing, so he only smiled wistfully.

"You're hopeless." Danny sighed and began patting him dry, other hand reaching for the clean bandages.


	3. Chapter 3

Vlad watched the door in anticipation of Daniel's arrival. It was around this time of day that the boy came by with a tray of edibles. Usually fruits and crackers with cheese, that sort of thing. He wasn't especially fond of eating meals that hadn't been made in his own kitchen or an expensive, health-assured restaurant, but he was in no position to be picky.

It had been four days since the vivisection and he was still far from being in any condition to leave. Time was both healing him and driving the ache deeper into his bones and the organs beneath. He found himself struggling to breathe without grimacing in pain more often than not, and he didn't expect that would cease anytime soon. His accelerated healing worked at a snails pace while in human form, and he didn't want to chance transforming when his ghost form was in dubious condition.

His bandages were becoming less dotted with blood every morning, and today the blood flow seemed to have finally found its end. Perhaps now he would be able to nap without waking up to quilts sullied with blood, and Daniel wouldn't have to change the cover every time he did. As it was white, the quilt was beyond saving, but the cover could always be washed. Wash it in time and there would be no lingering stains to worry about.

He threw his legs over the side of the bed and gingerly slid his fingers beneath the bandaged, feeling for the small metallic sutures beneath. He knew they were metal because what else would the Fenton's have had on hand? Comfort wasn't an issue when it came to operating on ghosts. His suspicion was proven correct when several small slivers of metal brushed up against his fingertips, accompanied by a slight ache. He could only reach so low without disturbing the bandages so he didn't explore for long. When he withdrew his fingers they were smudged with old, brown blood, and it occurred to him he hadn't had a thorough wash in quite a few days. He would need to request use of a shower before he began to reek of body odor. He was too proud a man to let that happen.

He wiped the blood off on the bandages since they would be changed at the end of the day anyway and attempted to rise to his feet. He was hardly the pillar of strength he was used to being, but he didn't wobble nearly as much the first time he had tried. He walked tentatively towards the door, using the wall to keep himself upright every step of the way. His hands dove for the door frame after a particularly long and tedious journey and he looked into the hallway, left and right. The guest bedroom door was open, but he couldn't see inside. There was an unusual lack of sound coming from within. Usually he could hear Daniel talking or typing on a computer or listening to music. But today? Nothing. Jazz Fenton's room was similarly quiet, and he could see inside well enough to know she wasn't occupying it. The only sounds he could hear came from the kitchen.

He didn't want to try going down the stairs, but neither did he want to wait any longer for food. "Daniel?" he called hopefully. There was, as he had anticipated, no response. With a sigh, he lugged himself back to bed and seated himself on the end, glancing longingly to the window, where a bright blue cloudless sky was in full view. It was perfect weather for golfing. It had only been a few days and he savored every minute spent with Daniel, but he'd hated being cooped up ever since being forced into hospitalization after the accident. For five years he'd wasted away in a hospital bed. Five years of his youth wasted. He never wanted to feel that hopeless ever again.

"Vlad?" He'd been so immersed in his thoughts he hadn't heard someone enter the room. Giving a little jump, he turned to greet Daniel.

But it wasn't Daniel at the door, it was Maddie.

Contrary to his earlier enthusiasm, he didn't feel the usual swell of warmth at seeing her. In fact, his body felt as if it had been encased in ice.

"Madeline," he croaked, trying to restore normal circulation by shrugging his shoulders and squeezing his hands into fists. He hoped it didn't look aggressive. "What brings you to my… to Daniel's room?"

"I brought you something to eat." His eyes were diverted, so he could only hear her hesitantly shuffling across the carpet, coming closer. "Danny's at school. He couldn't miss any more days without falling behind."

A tray was set down on the bed. He hadn't even noticed her carrying it. To be this frightened of the woman he loved was ridiculous! Glancing to the tray, and then to Maddie, he forced a small smile, hoping to console her.

"Thank you, Maddie. That's very thoughtful of you."

She produced a smile of her own, but it was awkward. "Well, I couldn't let you starve."

"Yes, that would be, uh… unethical." There was a pregnant pause. "Have you been doing well, since…?"

"I should be asking you that. I wanted to ask how you were sooner, but I - I couldn't bring myself to…" She trailed off, and the volume of her voice had managed to drop just above a whisper when she spoke again, "How are you doing?"

Vlad shrugged slowly. "Not fantastic, but I expect that's normal after being ripped open." His wording drew a grimace from Maddie, and he quickly added an apologetic, "But you don't have to worry, I'll make a full physical recovery before the end of the year."

"And mental?" she edged closer to the bed. "I mean, you were influenced by a ghost, and then —"

"Influenced?"

"I discussed it with Jack and Danny, and we agreed it would explain your behavior." One of her petite hands squeezed his tense shoulders, but it wasn't as comforting as she intended it to be. "We've decided we'll do everything within our power to help you."

"Does this help happen to involve experimental methods of extracting the ghost? Because if so…"

"No, no!" Maddie said quickly. "Danny told us everything you said about the ghost. We know it's part of you now. We'd risk further hurting you if we tried to extract it." Her hand finally withdrew, much to Vlad's relief. "You have a lot of actions to explain, but Jack, Danny, and I are committed to helping you through this."

Those were the exact words he'd hoped to hear throughout his time in the hospital. Unable to restrain a snicker, he shook his head and muffled his laughter by biting a knuckle — which hurt, but he'd rather bite a knuckle than come off as hysterical. He slowly brought his feet up to the mattress and sunk his head into the space between his body and his knees.

"Thank you," he whispered hoarsely, blinking away tears.

"Vlad," Maddie had come close again, leaning in enough that he could feel her breath warming his shoulder. "You don't have to accept our help if you don't want it. We won't force it on you."

"No!" Vlad jerked his head up, almost smacking Maddie in the face. "I - I mean, yes, I want you help. Please, I really do. All I ever wanted was to get close to you, Maddie. You and Daniel." He looked imploringly at her.

Her lips twisted into a grimace. "And Jack?"

"Well…"

"I'll never be in love with you, Vlad." She sounded stern as she said this, but when she saw Vlad grimace and dive back into the space between his knees her voice took on a softer edge, "But we are friends, and I want to be there for you—"

"Like you were there for me when I was in the hospital?" came his muffled reply. It wasn't angry, just inquisitive. "Why couldn't you have been there for me then? Why be there for me now?"

"It's… it's complicated," she stuttered. "For a while, we weren't allowed to visit because of government investigation, and then college ate up all our free time, and we decided to have an early marriage, and — it was just a very busy time for us."

Vlad clawed his fingers into his legs like an angry child trying to restrain their tears. "So you merely forgot about me."

There was a guilty pause. "No, Vlad. We drifted apart, like people do, but we never forgot about you. We spoke about you and thought about you often. When we spotted you in papers and news articles all those years later, we were proud. We even invited you to our wedding, remember?"

Vlad shrugged his shoulders as best he was able with his head buried between his legs. "Do you ever think that could have been us…? Surely you felt something for me?"

Maddie sighed. "It was Jack I had feelings for, and it will always be Jack I have feelings for. We're in our forties now and have children. Even if I had been interested, it's too late now, sweetheart." She reached down and pat his back like a consoling parent. "That doesn't mean you can't have a place in our family. You don't need to be married to me to be part of the Fenton's." The pets turned into circling motions. "Didn't Danny call you 'uncle'? Doesn't that sound nice?"

His body was rigid under her touch and his response less than enthusiastic. "I suppose."

"That's the spirit," Maddie encouraged. Seeming to notice his discomfort, at last, Maddie ceased her massaging and stepped away from the bed, footsteps receding in the direction of the door. "Daniel will be home at four. You're welcome to call for either me or Jack if you need anything or use the computer if you're bored."

The door shut with a gentle click and Vlad was finally able to lift his head to get a good look at what meal he had been delivered. A chicken sandwich, tomato soup, a bowl of fruit, and some yogurt. Delicious, and especially so because it'd been made specifically for him by Maddie. Whether she reciprocated or not didn't matter, he would always be in love with her.

Even if he shivered at the thought of being touched by her again, felt as if he'd been manhandled with every consoling stroke of her palm, he still loved her. Not even the trauma of a live dissection could extinguish his feelings.

He slid across the bed to retrieve the tray and began to eat ravenously. He hadn't eaten since breakfast, and Daniel had been in a rush (now he knew why) so he'd only managed to get down a piece of toast and some milk.

While he ate, he gave Daniel's computer a distant, but thorough inspection, frowning at the mediocre quality of it. It didn't look like Maddie and Jack had given it any embellishments, surprisingly. Perhaps Daniel had prevented them from taking it apart for them to 'improve'. Smart move, if so. He'd let Jack improve some of his equipment back in college, and by 'improve', he meant 'utterly ruin'. What remained had been unfixable.

The thought of Jack's constant blunders was putting him off his food. He tried to think of something else, of Maddie, but that was similarly disheartening.

After a while of fumbling for a happier subject, he thought about the time Daniel had referred to him as 'Uncle Vlad' and smiled.

If he wasn't able to be a dad, he could at the very least be an uncle. He could make Daniel love him as one, too. The boy had desperately tried to save his life despite everything he had done to him, everything he had put him through, and that made him feel as if he had a chance to cultivate a proper relationship with the boy.

Being an uncle wasn't ideal, but it was better than being considered nothing but a nuisance.

* * *

"Hey." Danny held up a plastic bag as he entered his bedroom. "I brought you some ice cream. That's what you give sick peoples, I think."

"Did weekend cartoons teach you that?" Vlad snorted, looking over from where he was lounging on the bed, ankles crossed and arms folded behind his head. He'd spent the entire day reading what few books Daniel kept in his room and napping. Now he possessed far more knowledge on astrology than he had ever cared to.

"Actually, yeah," Danny replied with a shrug. "Do you want it or not? It's caramel swirl."

Caramel swirl? He tried not to visibly salivate.

"I'll need a bowl. I won't be eating out of the container like a neanderthal."

Daniel arched an eyebrow. "That's a bit of a exaggeration," he said as he sat down on what little mattress was unoccupied. It was fortunate Vlad was so thin or there wouldn't have been enough room. "Don't worry, I brought a bowl and spoon up." He pulled the spoon and bowl out of the plastic bag and handed them to Vlad, but didn't hand over the ice cream until he'd picked off the plastic tab securing the lid.

"I could have done that myself," Vlad scoffed, but Daniel only shrugged again in response. Apparently he was being thought of as an invalid, and that was both advantageous and _a little_ embarrassing. His health had deteriorated to the point of being a hindrance, but he wasn't hopeless. He could still make his own meals and wander around if he really, really wanted to. He just hadn't tried because he had other people to do it for him and it felt kind of… _nice_ to be doted on. Being cared for by people who weren't obligated to help him for their bimonthly paycheck wasn't something he experienced often.

"How…" He paused, finding it awkward to verbalize the question he had in mind. He dipped his spoon into the ice cream to make it seem like he wasn't hesitating. "How was school? Did you have a good time with those little friends of yours?"

"Uh, yeah, I did," Daniel replied, clearly perplexed.

"And were you disrupted by ghosts at any point?"

"Not today." Daniel scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. "First day I've managed to get through without having a ghost show up in a while. I actually managed to finish all my maths in class instead of having to do it as homework. Why, uh… why did you want to know?"

"I saw your mother earlier," he replied, flapping a hand dismissively. "We discussed some things."

"Yeah, mom told me about that. I didn't think she'd be having you turning a different leaf this fast."

"It's 'turning over a new leaf', and it isn't justy your mother that has me trying to act the part allocated to me."

"Oh?" Daniel hummed questioningly, before letting out an even louder, "OH!" as he realized what Vlad meant. "But I didn't do anything?"

"Don't sell yourself short, Daniel." He picked up his bowl and scooped ice cream into it as he spoke. "You've allowed a former enemy to occupy your room. You attempted to save me. You've taken me on as your own responsibility. You've done more for me than anyone in the forty years I've been alive."

Daniel looked shocked. "In forty years? But — your family—?"

Vlad shook his head, and Daniel fell into a sombre silence. "I'm sincerely grateful for what you've done for me. If you can let bygones be bygones - and it seems you can - I have every intention of being part of _this_ family. That isn't to say I don't still love your mother and will stop pursing her, but it does mean our relationship will be far more amicable."

"Oh…okay," Daniel said awkwardly. "Uh, that's— that's great. What about my dad?"

Vlad pressed his lips together in distaste. "I've little time for your father, but I realize I won't be able to maintain a relationship with you if I continue to try to harm him."

"Are you serious?" Daniel's eyes had gone wide. "You aren't going to try to hurt my dad anymore? No more diabolical plans?"

He nodded. "Will I be a good man? That's questionable, and I can't promise that I won't go through with the plans that don't involve you or your family, but what you've done for me has changed my priorities."

"Wow," Daniel whispered. "I can deal with that, I think. I'm actually really happy about this." He ran a hand through his hair, blinking rapidly. "It's so weird. You're not my archenemy anymore."

"Better yet, I'm willing to teach you without the requirement of denouncing your father. I want to be as helpful to you as you have been to me."

Daniel's jaw had gone slack in disbelief. "I-I'll need a little while to decide, but that isn't a no."

"So," Vlad said, feeling it was time for a new topic. "I gather from your books that you like space. I could take you up there in a ship of my own design, some time, if you'd like."

The gasp that left Daniel's mouth was clearly a 'yes', and a very enthusiastic one at that. "Really? You can take me into space? In a ship!?"

"Of course I can. I'm Vladimir Masters, my dear boy—"

"Thank you thank you thank you!" Without a word of warning, Daniel had thrown his arms around Vlad to pull him into a loose embrace. It was momentary, awkward, and he almost lost his bowl of ice cream to the floor, but it was still the most heart lifting thing that had happened to Vlad in years.

He slowly wrapped an arm around Daniel's waist to give him a quick squeeze back. "No, thank _you_."

"You don't need to thank me for the hug, it comes with the whole 'being family' thing," Daniel said as he playfully nicked Vlad's spoon for a lick of ice cream. "What should I call you, then? Uncle Vlad?"

"Yes. Yes, I would like that."


End file.
